Shreveport, La. - The Centenary volleyball team will welcome four fellow Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference schools to town this weekend as the Ladies host the SCAC Group A Divisional Tournament.
Colorado College, University of Dallas, Schreiner University, and Southwestern University will join the Ladies for a two-day, 10-match event with contests in both the Gold Dome and the Fitness Center (FIT) on the Centenary campus.
The action begins on Friday at 1 p.m. with a pair of matches featuring Southwestern (6-4) versus Schreiner (3-6) in the Gold Dome and Dallas (6-6, 1-0 SCAC) versus Coloroado College (9-2) in the Fitness Center. Two matches will be held at 3:30 p.m. in both the Gold Dome and the FIT and then day one action concludes with Colorado College and host Centenary squaring off in the dome in a match scheduled for 6 p.m.
Schreiner meets Coloroado College in the first match of day two at 11 a.m. in the Gold Dome on Saturday while Dallas meets Southwestern at 11 a.m. in the FIT. Then Dallas meets the Ladies in the final match of the day and the tournament at approximately 4:30 p.m. in the Gold Dome.
Three of the top five in the preseason SCAC poll (Colorado College, Dallas, and Southwestern) will be in the tournament. The Ladies, off to a 1-0 start in SCAC play after a thrilling five-set victory at home over St. Thomas last Saturday, are playing just their second home match of the season when they face Southwestern on Friday. Centenary played four games apiece in the Austin College Invite to open the season and the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational earlier this month. The Ladies dropped a non-conference match on Tuesday evening to the LeTourneau YellowJackets, 3-0, in Longview in their most recent action.
Sophomore Lauren Kelley (Fort Worth, Texas) led the Ladies with 11 kills Tuesday while Rachel Demerjian (Glendora, Calif.) led the way with 17 digs and Ami Powers (Katy, Texas) and Marissa Sandoval (San Antonio, Texas) each had 15.
In last Saturday's match versus the Celts, St. Thomas won the first two sets by scores of 25-23 and 25-21 before the Ladies dominated the third set (25-10) to strecth the match to a fourth set. Centenary prevailed, 25-17, in set four and then closed out the victory to the delight of the large crowd, 15-10. Senior Marissa Sandoval (San Antonio, Texas) led the Ladies with 25 digs on Saturday. The 5-3 defensive specialist owns the career record for digs in school history, setting the mark last weekend in the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational. Junior Ami Powers (Katy, Texas) added 22 digs and teammates Kristian Loving (Tyler, Texas), Rachel Demerjian (Glendora, Calif.), and Mariah Martinez (San Antonio, Texas) all posted double-digit digs in the match. It was the home debut of first-year head coach Ashley McDonough.
Following this weekend's tournament the Ladies remain at home to face ETBU on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. and then will head to Houston on Sept. 28 to face St. Thomas in a conference match. Live stats and live video stream for all 10 matches this weekend are available via gocentenary.com by visiting the volleyball page and accessing the schedule. Complete recaps and box scores will be available on the web site following matches and be sure to check Centenary atheltic social media for updates as well.
A complete schedule of the SCAC Group A Divisional Tournament is below. Live stream coverage from CollegeTVTicket is available at https://collegetvticket.com/schedule/index?&tournament=273
Friday, Sept. 20
Game 1: Southwestern vs. Schreiner 1 p.m. Gold Dome
Game 2: Dallas vs. Colorado College 1 p.m. FIT
Game 3: Southwestern vs. Centenary 3:30 p.m. Gold Dome
Game 4: Dallas vs. Schreiner 3:30 p.m. FIT
Game 5: Colorado College vs. Centenary 6 p.m. Gold Dome
Saturday, Sept. 21
Schreiner vs. Colorado College 11 a.m. Gold Dome
Dallas vs. Southwestern 11 a.m. FIT
Schreiner vs. Centenary 2 p.m. Gold Dome
Southwestern vs. Colorado College 2 p.m. FIT
Dallas vs. Centenary 4:30 p.m. Gold Dome
